How to be a Good Recruiter: 10 Experts Share Advice

What do recruiters do? 

Simply put, recruiters help candidates find jobs and help companies build teams of quality employees. They work with hiring managers to figure out what the company needs, find qualified candidates who are a good fit for the role and company, and guide them through the hiring process.

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So, what makes a good recruiter? Here at Puck, the people-first way to hire, we spoke with 10 talent leaders to identify 4 key skills. Listening to these industry experts share their advice will help jump-start your recruiter career and put you on the path to stand out. 

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1. What makes a good recruiter: choosing candidates who are good teammates 

What separates a good recruiter from a great one? The ability to build relationships. The best recruiters don’t just contact candidates; they get to know them. At Puck, we believe that candidates don’t join job descriptions––they join people, teams, and company cultures. Recruiters who understand their candidates can make more informed decisions about whether a candidate is going to be a good teammate within the context of the organization. 

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La Binet, Senior Manager of Technical Recruiting and DEI at Color, believes that a great teammate “has a high degree of empathy,” and this helps them collaborate and communicate across teams. 

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This is also an essential trait for a recruiter. Empathetic recruiters will be able to put themselves in the candidate’s shoes to understand what’s meaningful to them––the answers might surprise you.  

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Gabrial Fett, Director of Talent Acquisition at Zilliz, thinks that great teammates come with expertise that they can use to support the company goals and share with their team. 

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Jenny Chen, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Course Hero, lists her top qualities that she looks for in a teammate: agility, initiative, attention to detail, willingness to learn, and purpose. 

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2. What makes a good recruiter: setting candidates up for success

Good recruiters support their candidates and give them the resources to succeed. One way they do this is by communicating clearly with their candidates. 

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For example, Laura Hansen, Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Suzy, asks candidates their top three considerations for accepting a new role. She also asks them about their desired compensation to understand how to get them the best offer she can. Recruiters should also be approachable, and Laura achieves this by telling her candidates to feel free to ask her any questions they may have. 

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To set candidates up for success, recruiters tell them what to expect at each stage of the process and how to prepare for interviews and assessments. Laura sends her candidates materials about the company and tells them what kinds of questions they can expect to be asked in their interviews. 

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To see how well a candidate’s skills map to the tasks they would complete in a role, Sarah Ruth Boyer Hendrix, Talent Lead at Thyme Care, uses each interview to pose a practical example of a challenge they might encounter on the job. This helps her gauge whether the candidate would succeed in the team and company environment.

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3. What makes a good recruiter: adaptability

You never know where life is going to take you. La shares how her career path has taken her on a journey that she never would have seen coming. Her advice is to remain open to possibilities; it will make you a better professional in the long run.

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Being open-minded can also help recruiters find diamonds in the rough: candidates that could be the perfect fit for a role despite having unconventional backgrounds. Recruiters should understand that resumes don’t tell the full story.

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The best recruiters are cross-functional; they dip into marketing, sales, employer branding, communications, and project management to get the job done. 

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Recruiters find ways to draw candidate attention online, sell candidates on roles, represent the company culture during interviews, and craft compelling emails to candidates. They oversee multiple candidates, outreach initiatives, and metrics, all while keeping their eye on the timeline to fill a role. To top it off, they have to manage all of these moving parts with organization, attention to detail, and efficiency.

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Filip Haltmayer, a software engineer at Zilliz, advises you to learn to wear different hats within your current role. 

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Dubi Ben-Shoham, Senior Director of Global Talent at Socotra, discusses the importance of being flexible and taking risks.

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4. What makes a good recruiter: constant self-improvement

While the quest for self-improvement is important for any career, this is especially true for recruiters, whose jobs require them to constantly learn skills from other fields. 

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Laura Buckle, Senior Director of Global Recruitment and Talent at SKIMS, still practices accepting criticism and using it to challenge herself.

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Learning new skills often costs time and money, which can seem daunting, but George Baxter-Holder, Director of Talent at SkinSpirit, wishes he’d done that earlier in his career. “To not be afraid to really invest in myself would be my biggest advice,” he says.

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Lastly, a little self-belief goes a long way. Lindsey Papania, Director of Talent Acquisition, Field at Madison Reed, emphasizes the power of confidence. 

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Takeaways for recruiting success 

One thing is clear; while there will always be new tools to try out, the most important skills that a recruiter can have are interpersonal. If you choose candidates who will make good teammates, set your candidates up for success, stay flexible, and commit to self-improvement, you’re on your way to stand out in your recruiter career. 

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At Puck, we believe that the heart of a company is always its people, and that’s what recruiting is all about. Recruiters “make people's careers and goals come true,” Lindsey says. As a recruiter, your hard work and the decisions you make create company cultures and lay the foundations for company success, one hire at a time. 

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Looking to learn effective recruiting strategies from experts? Listen to our webinar interviews with Laura Buckle at SKIMS and Sarah Ruth Boyer Hendrix at cambre. 

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